MORE than 30,000 child abusers, sex offenders and violent criminals are "getting away with their crimes" because of a drop in the number of convictions, Labour claimed today.

What are you doing about it? You are the Home Secretary - why will you not act to make sure that victims get the justice they deserve?

Yvette Cooper

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper berated the Government for a seven per cent drop in sexual offences prosecutions, at a time when the number of sex offences reported to the police rose by 16 per cent.

Ms Cooper said new figures released today showed there has also been a nine per cent drop in convictions for violent crime even though incidents reported to the police only fell by 1.5 per cent.

"According to analysis by the House of Commons library the drop in convictions as a result is the equivalent of 13,000 more violent offenders, 3,500 more sex offenders, 13,000 more domestic abusers, 700 more child abusers getting away with their crimes on your watch.

"Those are the facts. The number of cases going to court is going down in areas where the recorded crimes are going up.

"What are you doing about it? You are the Home Secretary - why will you not act to make sure that victims get the justice they deserve?"

Theresa May said the rise in reported sexual offences had been prompted by the Jimmy Savile case [PA]

Mrs May admitted there had been more reports of sexual offences as more people come forward with historic cases of abuse as a result of the revelations about Jimmy Savile and other celebrities.

But she said that as overall crime falls the number of cases going to court falls and added that successful prosecutions of rape and sexual violence are at an all-time high.

Mrs May said: "First of all, there is a case that we have seen a higher number of cases of sexual violence being reported and I think that it is good if we are seeing people willing to come forward, willing to report cases.

"In some of these instances, these are historic cases. There has been an upturn in the number of people coming forward as a result of the revelations that have taken place - particularly prompted by the issues around Jimmy Savile - but other cases as well mean that we are seeing more people coming forward.

"As I indicated earlier what we have seen in terms of the number of cases in terms of successful prosecutions by the CPS for rape and sexual violence, that has hit an all-time high.